Types of Ministry
Types of Ministry in the Church of England
Ministry of all believers
The Bible makes clear that all Christians are called to minister (that is “serve”). We are called to love God and to love our neighbours. We are called to be active in our praying and our worship, not just sitting back and letting others get on with it. We are called to support God’s work, both by being involved and in our financial giving – what the Old Testament calls “tithing”.
The vicar and PCC should be encouraging church members to be active in worship, through the reading of lessons, being a sidesperson/welcomer, assisting at communion, leading the intercessions, singing in a choir or music group, helping provide tea and coffee. Some have time and abilities to offer as Church Wardens, Treasurer or Church Secretary. Some have a ministry of visiting the elderly, sick or housebound.
Most importantly, we all have a 24/7 ministry wherever we are of living for God, making God known, what the New Testament calls “witness”. The Epistle of Peter puts it like this: “ If asked, always be ready to give a good account of the hope that is within you” (1 Peter 3: 15) 99% of Christians have a call to ministry and work out their ministry without being ordained or licensed. For most of us, more than 90% of our waking lives are spent outside the church building.
However, some are called by God to particular ministries. In the Church of England authorised/licensed ministries have a two-fold focus. First such ministers are authorised to lead public worship and to preach and teach in churches and other places. Second, they are recognisably ministers of the Church, people from whom others can expect certain behaviour, skills and character. This wider understanding of ministry is somewhat less easy to define.
Recognised lay ministries in the Church of England
Click here for Reader ministry
Click here for other types of lay ministry.
Types of ordained minister
Use the menu on the left for information about stipendiary and self-supporting ministries, including NSM, MSE and OLM.
Chaplains: Hospitals, prisons, universities, some hospices and some large places of work have full-time chaplains who work in the institution. In many cases now chaplaincy teams are multi-faith and Christian chaplains work alongside Imams or rabbis. In Colleges of Further Education and in some schools there are part-time chaplains who may well also be parish priests. Some cities and towns have part or full-time town centre chaplains. There is also a chaplaincy at Manchester Airport and a Chaplaincy to the Deaf.
Ordained pioneer ministers: As so many communities today are less and less aware of the Christian faith and have lost their connections with “church” so the Church of England is providing training for those who are recognised to have the potential to be pioneer ministers, who can help build or create new congregations among people who are not part of the existing church networks. Some of these new congregations are referred to as “Fresh Expressions” of Church.
Paid or unpaid
Paid clergy (stipendiary clergy) receive an income from the Church of England, but many people are called to a non-stipendiary ministry, or a self-supporting ministry; such people are licensed in a parish near where they live, and offer an agreed number of hours or sessions a week to the church.
“Full-time” or “part-time”
Most stipendiary clergy are full-time in that the stipend they receive should enable them to offer a full-time ministry wherever it is they are licensed. Some non-stipendiary clergy generously offer many hours or sessions a week, and have agreed to provide a virtually “full” ministry in a parish.
However no ordained minister is “part-time”, just as no Christian is a “part-time” minister. Ministers in Secular Employment (MSEs) are ordained people who have another job which provides their income, but this does not mean they are not a minister during that work-time. Some find themselves becoming chaplains to colleagues or being drawn on at times of crisis or bereavement, but MSEs rightly remind the wider church that theirs is as much a ministry as the parish priest.
Deployable or local
Ordained Local Ministers (OLMs) are people who have been called by their local parish to help meet a recognised need in their parish. After training they continue to work in their local parish with the other minister(s). Others after ordination serve their curacy in a different parish (NSMs somewhere nearby), and will probably move again at the end of the curacy, possibly anywhere in the country, possibly to a parish nearby.
